The President of Niger, Mohammed Bazoum was detained by the members of the Presidential Guard who have been given an “ultimatum” by the army, a source close to Bazoum said on Wednesday.
It was made clear that the President and his family are fine, however, these members of the Presidential Guard denied access and blocked all exits from the presidential offices and residences.
The PG attempted to gain the support of the national armed forces but failed woefully according to a message shared on Twitter, they were also warned by the army and national guard to ‘return to a better disposition’ or they will attack.
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This isn’t the first time a coup has been attempted or in fact, successfully carried out on some occasions in Africa. Coup is an illegal attempt by military men or other civilians to unseat the current leader in office.
Nigeria, Ghana, others Coup De’tat
Nigeria which is also not new to coups has had about 8 attempted or successful coups following the independence between January 1966 and to 2014 Enugu Government House attack, including the takeover by General Sani Abacha in 1993.
Ghana has also had its share of military coups with 8 reported in 2 decades. The first coup was on February 24, 1966, the government of Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in a military coup d’état.
Burundi amongst many others is also one of the countries that has gone through successful overthrow of leaders. Most of the eleven separate coups come from the tension between the Hutu and Tutsi communities.
Another recorded overthrow of a ruler was that of Burkina Faso in 2022 the second time that year when the residents woke up to the loud noise of gunfire with the then army captain eventually announcing that the military ruler, Paul-Henri Damiba, has been deposed and the constitution in the country suspended.
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Damiba, who was also a military man got to power in January 2002, when the President, Roch Kabore was deposed and constitutions were suspended. Following this, he ordered the close of the border, and disbanded the national assembly members, and all government activities.
Coup: Sierra leonne, Mali, Others
Sierra Leon faced nine coups between 1967 to 1997. On 25 May 1997, the government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who had been elected president in March 1996 in the first multi-party elections for nearly three decades in Sierra Leone, was overthrown by a group of soldiers from the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) who had formed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).
The Vice President of Mali, Assimi Goïta also led a coup in May 2021. The illegal overthrow of the leader started that night when the VP captured President Bah N’daw, Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, and Minister of Defence Souleymane Doucouré.
That same year, many other countries reported Coups, On 5 September 2021, the President of Guinea Alpha Condé was captured by the Military men in the coup after gunfire in the capital.
This was claimed to have happened according to the army because the president had poor economic management, disregard human rights, and was involved in several corruption.
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Months before this, that same year, Chad made headlines on the recorded coup after the death of the then president, Idris Debby. It is constitutional in the country that after the death of the leader, the mandates hold office for 40 days, however, the army disregarded this and said it was dissolving the parliament and placed the son of the late president, Mahamat Kaka, as the interim president of the country.
Sudan which has made headlines occasionally for its attempts and successful coup had its 35th coup d’etat (including plots) on the 25th of October 2021 when the military grasped the power and announced a state of emergency after dissolving the military-civilian Sovereign council.
